Kids in the kitchen :: meringues

Both our kids love helping out in the kitchen.
They are ace mixers, pourers and measurers.
But they have come to the stage where they want to do more — in fact, do it all. By themselves. So I've handed over the pot holders and let them at it.
Wait! Put the phone down. Do not call DoCS. I am not going to completely turn my kitchen over to a five-year-old and just-turned-four-year-old. Although it quite often looks as if I have.
We have discovered that meringues are something kids can do pretty much solo (well with a mama hovering close by but not touching — much). It's great for encouraging independence and growing confidence in young children.
All you need are two egg whites and 100 grams of caster sugar.
And the only utensils they need are a large mixing bowl, electric mixer, lined oven tray, spoons and pot holders.
I usually have leftover egg whites and I freeze them in pairs for future use. Just thaw them and let them sit at room temp for about half an hour before use.
Preheat the oven to 100°C. Oh excuse me. Let your littles turn the dial to the 100 mark.
Next let your little hands whisk the egg whites with a hand held mixer until they form soft peaks.
Then they can measure the sugar out, add half to the egg whites and use the mixer again to get them thick enough to be able to turn the bowl upside down without anything falling out (our kids are always amazed by this but I do have to encourage them to keep mixing as they want to turn the bowl very early in the piece).
Next get them to fold the rest of the sugar in with a big metal spoon. I have shown them how to fold ingredients gently quite a few times and I was very impressed with their efforts (I have given this step a bit of help with our daughter a few times).
Then let them spoon blobs onto a lined tray using two teaspoons. Again I was most impressed with their technique. To get the little peaks you just need to swirl the tip of a spoon in the top of the blob — our son has become a master at this and likes to add the finish to each blob as our daughter plops it on the tray. Team work. Love it.
Then comes the "grown up" part they love. Putting the tray in the oven without mama. Just make sure they are gloved-up.
The meringues will take about two hours to set and then get a gloved-up little to retrieve them (the tray will really only be warm).
Then all that's left to do is eat them and well, like all kids ours are total experts at that part of the process.

PS :: It's school holidays in our little world (yay!) so I'll be a bit of a scarce blogger for the next couple of weeks. I will be back this Friday with another fantastic giveaway.

A biscuit to please littles AND biggies

I am really enjoying Bill Granger's new cookbook, feed me now!. It's packed with fantastic family-friendly recipes. This week we gave the chocolate and pistachio biscotti a whirl. I've never made biscotti before and I was really pleased with how it turned out.
Perfect with a hot chocolate or glass of milk for the littles and fantastic with a coffee/tea for the grown-ups. Everyone satisfied with one bake. I love it. Oh and you can make a nice Jenga stack with it too.
If you want to give it a go he also published the recipe online for SMH's Good Living here.

Cold comfort

Gee whiz it's cold and windy outside. Of the freezing and gale force variety.
We crazily braved the walk to school this morning and I'm pretty sure that stuff hitting us in the face was sleet.
Then to top it off the wind whisked away a drawing our daughter was holding way beyond the reach of this smidge-over-five-foot-mama. And so she played a spot of see-you-and-raise-you-one with the foul weather and embarked on the mother of all meltdowns, complete with frothing at the mouth.
We made it back home alive (just), kicked off our gumboots, crawled in under the covers together and napped for an hour.
Balance restored.
And just to make sure we stay in the land of happy (and froth-free) for the rest of the day we're about to put on a warming and comforting lunch. There's nothing like a hot lunch on a cold winter day.
I use this pumpkin dish I discovered via Elizabeth David as a perfect accompaniment to pork and recently discovered that leftovers mixed with brown rice make for one of the finest comfort foods around (a quasi risotto even).
Preheat your oven to 220°C. Steam about 600 grams of pumpkin until soft then mash. Scatter 30 grams of butter (broken into little pieces) in the bottom of an oven proof dish (a pie dish is a good size) and put in pumpkin mash. Then add half a cup of milk, one egg and the yolk of another (keep the white), season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and give it all a stir. Then whisk up your egg white and stir it in too. Chop some butter into pea-size bits and sprinkle on top. Place the dish in the oven for 5-10 minutes.
Pssst :: don't forget today is the last day to enter the Le Super Zeros giveaway. Click the image top left over there to leave a comment and be in the running to give Zonk a new home.
Have a warm and toasty weekend everyone. x

There's a pear in there

I have always been quick to spout off about how much I dislike Winter. Maybe a little too quick and I think it's even about time I said sorry to the frosty fellow. Because you know what, whilst I don't like feeling cold and I miss wearing singlets and thongs (or flip flops — I don't want anyone on the other side of the world to think I hang out all summer in a singlet and pair of barely there underpants), there is a whole lot that comes with the season of chill that I do like. In fact, love even.
:: I love sitting in front of a fire sipping hot chocolate
:: I love wrapping my littles in lovely knitted beanies, scarves and mittens before we head out for a brisk walk to school
:: I love family board games
:: I love it that the littles sleep until at least 8am most Saturdays
:: I love rainy afternoons around the fire reading chapter books
:: I love snuggling on the couch catching up on all the movies I've wanted to see for the last year
:: I love misty mornings
:: I love the smell and taste of slow-cooked food
:: And I really, really, really love baking
Last week I had a lot of ripe pears so gave the Pear and Almond Pudding Cake from The River Cottage Family Cookbook a go. It was so delicious we ate the whole thing and I got up and cooked it again the very next morning!
And I just have to tell you that this is one of the.best.ever cookbooks. Seriously. It's not just that the recipes are great. They are that. But they are not just recipes. This book celebrates families in the kitchen by including the hows and whys of food science and history (it's answered a lot of our kids' and my questions). It's like having a totally fun and friendly home-ec teacher in your house to make simple sense of everything for you. There's even food experiments to try and instructions on growing your own produce. It really is the bees knees.
Oh okay, I know, the recipe already:

What you will need:
150g unsalted butter, softened (but not melted)
25g unsalted butter (this can be straight from the fridge as you will be melting it)
1 tblspn granulated sugar
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn almond extract
75g almond meal
75g self raising flour
3 ripe (but still a little firm) pears
How to make it:
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin (springform is best to release this cake as it is very moist).
Peel and core pears and slice each pear into four large wedges. Put in a small saucepan over medium heat, add butter and sugar and stir gently to coat pears. Cook for just a few minutes and then remove from heat.
Mix butter and sugar well with a wooden spoon then beat in eggs one at a time following with almond extract. Add almond meal and flour and fold into mixture.
Scrape mixture into pan and spread evenly and gently with a knife. Arrange pears on top and bake for about 45 minutes.

What are you finding to love about winter?

Ode to Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.
[1st verse, Ode to Autumn, John Keats]

There's nothing like Keats' lovely tribute to ease my passing of the season mourning.
I'm holding on so tightly to the last leaves that cling to our big old Manchurian pear tree. I've told myself that when they are all gone I must embrace winter. I figure I have about a week left (unless I get so desperate I super glue a few leaves to a branch...
The littles have been paying their respect to the lovely colours of the season with a bit of leaf frolicking.

And we've also been bringing the colours inside the kitchen and our tummies through some sweet and salty and seriously delicious pistachio biscuits.



See you next year friend.

White Chocolate and Pistachio Biscuits
Nigella Lawson :: How to be a Domestic Goddess
100g soft unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
100g brown sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 egg
150g plain flour
1 tspn bicarb
100g ground pistachios
125g whole pistachios
125g white chocolate
Preheat oven to 180°C. Cream butter and sugars. Add vanilla, then egg, then flour and bicarb. When you have a smooth, thick dough add the nuts and chocolate and mix to combine. Roll walnut-sized balls and place on greased and lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Leave on baking sheet to firm for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Loafing around

As the chill descends it's important to focus on the good things that winter will bring.
Number one for me is baking. Lots of baking. It warms the house and tummies. Double the good deed.
There is nothing like warm sweets and a cup of tea to put me in the right frame of mind.
I'm trying to pace myself and haven't started on the puddings yet. Soon. I'm trying to hold off until June 1 to bust them out.
Right now I'm using up all the bananas in my freezer to make the age-old crowd-pleasing banana loaf. This is one recipe that never lets me down. It's quick to whip up (you don't even have to get the mix master out), I always have the ingredients on hand, you can add spices, nuts and even chocolate to bling it up a bit, it makes the house smell nice and while it is delicious warm (especially with some vanilla icecream) it tastes even better on day two (if it makes it that far). Here's my take:

Banana Loaf
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 tspns baking powder
1 cup raw caster sugar
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
3 bananas mashed
125g butter (melted)
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a loaf tin. Sift flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl (tip the wholemeal husks left in the sieve in too). Stir in your caster sugar and spices. In a separate bowl combine melted butter, mashed narnies and whisked eggs. Now add it to your dry ingredients and mix well. Bake for about an hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Dust with icing sugar.

A tip I learnt from my nanna: add a piece of folded newspaper to the bottom of your loaf tin (put it under the greaseproof) to stop loaf cakes burning on the bottom.

Added extras I love: 1/2 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, milk choc chips or white choc chips.

A good egg

I have a new obsession.
Egg poaching.
Not in a hide in the bushes and steal from the hen house way though.
I know I'm late to the game on this one but a few past failures and overwhelming tips (I really thought you had to swirl the water in a certain direction to pull off the mystical poached egg) had turned me into an eggs-any-other-way-but-poached kind of Mama.
But my entire family LOVES poached eggs and one morning I woke with a particularly strong hankering. Enter the solver of all problems great and small — Google. Why I had never googled "poached eggs" before is beyond me.
It turns out there's a website dedicated entirely to the art of poaching an egg — perfectpoachedegg.com. But of course.
My main (but not only) boo-boo was the use of about FIVE litres of water instead of just enough to cover the egg. I also thought you had to get it off the heat and cover with a lid as soon as the egg hit the water.
All you need is a deep non-stick frying pan. Fill with water. Bring to the boil. Add a dash of vinegar. Carefully break your egg into the centre of the boiling water and about a minute later you can lift it out gently with a slotted spoon or spatula and place it atop your toast.
Our kids have been ordering them every other morning (and some lunch times). I think the most satisfying part for them is jabbing their fork in and watching the yoke run out volcano-style. They've renamed them "poked eggs".
Want to know another good place for a poached egg?
It makes a great topper for a bowl of Minestrone soup. Really, it's delicious.

Easter baking :: get nesty

Hot cross bunnies, Easter is almost here! How did that happen?
As this is our first Easter in this house the littles have been very excitedly pointing out to each other all the new places the big-footed bunny might like to hide eggs for them. Of course I have been eavesdropping (just so I can make sure that bunny gets it right, you know).
I'll be spending this weekend in the kitchen whipping up as many batches of chocolate nests as I can humanly manage. I first made these little nests four years ago for our immediate family. It didn't take long for the secret to get out and the list of who I make these for has grown quite considerably. Our son even asked me this week if I would be making one for EVERY kid in his class. Ummmm... perhaps not. I do love making and giving them and they are so super easy and very delicious (a little bit Golden Roughish even).
The recipe is from my much-loved copy of Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess. Only I use shredded coconut instead of shredded wheat.
Ingredients:
200g milk chocolate
25g dark chocolate
25g unsalted butter
100g shredded coconut
Make it:
Break the chocolate into small pieces and put it in a glass bowl with the butter. Melt in the microwave on medium heat for about a minute and a half. Stir and then mix in the coconut. Now simply form small handfuls of the mixture into nest shapes and place on a tray lined with baking paper. You can make your nests whatever size you like, I get about six out of the above mixture. Leave overnight in a cool place to set. Then fill with some little speckled eggs (I use the Cadbury's ones). Chicken is optional and a bit twee but our kids love it. They say it hatched out of one of the eggs (cute). I wrap each nest in cellophane and tie with a nice ribbon.
Tip: If you are looking for preservative free shredded coconut Willowvale Organics do one. I got my local health food shop to order some in or you can get it online here.

Autumn recipe list :: Week 4

I can't believe I am on the last week of my Autumn recipe list. That month went by super fast!
So this week I am doing the last seven dishes left on the list. I was worried I might be left with seven nights straight of chicken dishes but as it turns out I've done okay and there's a nice variety this week. Now for the rest of the season I just pick a weekly recipe list to repeat and I'm sorted for family dinners.
:: Vegie Soup
Ingredients:
1 leek
2 garlic cloves
2 celery sticks
2 large potatoes
2 carrots
1 zucchini
1/2 cup barley
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
400g tin butter beans
400g tin chick peas
2L vegetable stock
fresh parsley and basil
Make it:
Heat a little olive oil in a large boiler over medium heat and cook sliced leek and celery and diced garlic cloves until soft. Add diced potato, toss and cook for a minute, then add diced carrot and zucchini, toss and cook a minute more. Pour in stock and barley and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper, add butter beans, chick peas and green peas. Return to the boil then simmer for a few minutes before serving. Top with chopped parsley and basil to serve.
:: Aleppo Chicken
This is a boiled (I've never been there before!) whole chicken dish with an almond cream sauce from Elizabeth David.
:: Peas & Crunchy Bacon
I've mentioned this Jamie Oliver recipe before here. It's fantastic served on some wholemeal spaghetti.
:: Gnocchi with Mushrooms
I'm going to try Jamie Oliver's potato gnocchi recipe and team it with some mushrooms cooked in cream and butter and topped with shaved parmesan.
:: Chicken & Basil Stir-fry
Ingredients:
500g chicken breast
2 garlic cloves
1 carrot
handful of snow peas
broccoli
1/2 red capsicum
1/2 cup cashew nuts
soba noodles
soy sauce
oyster sauce
sesame oil
12 basil leaves
Make it:
Heat a little olive oil in a wok and add diced garlic and stripped chicken breast. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add carrot and capsicum strips and cook about 1 minute. Add broccoli and cook a minute more. Combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon each of oyster sauce and sesame oil. Pour over wok contents and stir. Cook a minute or so then add snow peas, finely sliced basil and cashew nuts. Serve on soba noodles.
:: Pork Dumplings
These are from The Women's Weekly Complete Book of Modern Entertaining. They should make for a fun Friday night finger meal.
:: Pan-fried Veal
Ingredients:
500g veal steaks/fillets
garlic clove
handful of brown mushrooms
3/4 cup cream
1 carrot
handful fresh beans
12 chat potatoes
Make it:
Slice your veal into thin fillets, pound with a mallet then season with sea salt and cracked pepper. Heat a little olive oil and 2 tblspns butter in a fry pan over medium heat. Place fillets in pan and cook for a few minutes on either side. Remove and cover with foil. Add a bit more butter, crushed garlic and sliced mushrooms to pan and cook, then add cream to pan and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and put veal back in pan. Heat for about 5 minutes and serve with steamed veg. After the kids' veal and creamy sauce has been taken out of the pan I like to add a bit of white or red wine and bring back to the boil for the grown ups.

Autumn recipe list :: Week 3

It's time for another seven days of Autumn chow for the family. Here's what will be scoffed down (with not a whisper of the word "yucky" I hope) around our dinner table this week:
:: Tuna Patties with Green Bean & Lentil Salad
It's amazing what kids will eat when it's squashed into a rissole shape!
For the patties:
425g can tuna
2 potatoes
1 garlic clove
1 carrot
1 stick celery
parsley
1 egg
Make it:
Peel and steam potatoes until soft then mash in large mixing bowl. Drain tuna and mix in with potato. Add crushed garlic clove, grated carrot, finely chopped celery and 1/4 cup chopped parsley. Break egg into bowl and mix everything together really well. Shape mixture into 8 patties and place on a tray, cover and pop in the fridge for at least 1/2 and hour.
When it's time to cook your patties dust them in a little flour and either cook as is or crumb them and cook. To cook heat 2 tblspns olive oil in a large fry pan over medium-high heat and cook patties for approximately 5 minutes each side.
The salad is from the Women's Weekly Complete Book of Modern Entertaining.
:: Lemon Chicken
Another Bill Granger family favourite. This is the best lemon chicken I have ever eaten!
:: Vongoli Linguine
Okay, so we really shouldn't be eating shell fish this far from the coast but as it's our daughter's absolutely favourite meal and her birthday falls in Autumn we had to put this one on our recipe list.
Ingredients:
500g fresh or dried linguine
1kg vongoli
6 cloves garlic
parsley
1 lemon
Make it:
Get your water on to boil for your pasta and then finely dice your garlic cloves (go for 6-8 depending on the size of them). You'll need a big bunch of parsley. Pick all the leaves off and put aside then finely chop your parsley stems. Heat 2 tblspns olive oil in a large fry pan over medium-low heat. Add garlic and parsley stems and cook for about 5 minutes. You want them to soften but not brown.
Get your pasta on. Now add washed vongoli and increase heat to high. Cooking until all your little clams have popped open. You can put a lid over to steam them open if they are taking too long as you really only want to cook them for 8 minutes maximum.
Drain pasta and return to pot. Season with sea salt and the juice of a lemon. Scrape in vongoli, garlic and parsley stems from your fry pan along with any cooking juices and mix well. Plate up and finish with a squeeze more lemon and a generous sprinkle of parsley leaves.
:: Minestrone
This is from a Women's Weekly Kids Cookbook, with just a few minor adjustments of my own. It's a quick and easy soup for a busy week night.
Ingredients:
2 eschallots
1 garlic clove
4 bacon rashers
1 celery stalk
2 carrots
2 zucchini
410g tin of tomatoes
2 cups vegetable stock
1 litre water
1/2 cup small alphabet pasta
1 tin butter beans
1/4 cup basil
Make it:
Heat 2 tblspns olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat and cook finely chopped eschallots, diced bacon, crushed garlic and chopped celery for about 6 minutes. Add tin of tomatoes, water, stock, pasta and grated carrot and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, season with salt and pepper and cover. Let soup simmer for about 10 minutes. Add grated zucchini and butter beans and return to the boil. Top with chopped basil and some thin slices of parmesan cheese.
:: Bow Tie Creamy Pasta
An easy-peasy end of the week dinner.
Ingredients:
6 bacon rashers
1 garlic clove
500g bow tie pasta
1 cup fresh peas
8 mushrooms
1/2 cup cream
Make it:
Get your water on to boil and then pop in your pasta.
Remove rind from bacon rashers, roughly chop and cook in a fry pan over medium-high heat. Crush in garlic clove after a couple of minutes and allow to cook for a few more minutes then add chopped mushrooms. When mushrooms are almost cooked add 1 cup fresh or frozen peas and let cook for a further minute or two. Stir in cream and season with a little salt and pepper. Remove from heat after a minute.
Drain pasta and plate up. Top with creamy sauce and grated parmesan.
:: Brown Rice Pilaf
Another one from The Weekly.
:: Roast Pork
This wasn't on my master list for Autumn but my husband picked up a very tasty looking roast at the markets from our favourite free-range pork people so he'll be on duty to get the crackling crunchy and I'll be making some stewed apples, roast sweet potato and steamed green beans on the side.

Cooking for kids

I'm always on the search for cooking inspiration for kid-friendly chow so was very excited to stumble on Tamra Davis on You Tube earlier this week. She makes little videos of her, her kids and her friends cooking for children (she's also a film maker and married to Mike D from the Beastie Boys!). Then I discovered she has her own website where you can view her cooking shows and get some of her recipes. Check it out, I think you'll love it. She's also just released a cookbook that you can download or buy here.

Autumn recipe list :: Week 2

Did I say I was going to post these on a Monday? Silly me, Wednesday is a much better day, isn't it? Well, it is for me this week since I have been sick and unable to scrape together much more than beans on toast for the littles.
Here's a seven day Autumnal menu plucked from my master list:
:: Spicy Chicken Meatballs
A family favourite of ours (Daddy actually makes them best) from Bill Granger's Every Day. The good thing about Bill is that he has kids, so I find he gets that balance of spicy enough for an adult palette but not too spicy for a little palette just right.
:: Pork Cutlets with Apple Sauce
I am very taken with these pork products at the moment.
Ingredients:
4 pork cutlets
4 apples
2 tblspns caster sugar
2 bunches broccolini
Make it:
Preheat oven to 200°C and warm an oiled baking tray. Heat 2 tblspns of olive oil in a fry pan on medium-high heat and cook cutlets about 3 minutes each side. Transfer to baking tray and cook in oven for approximately 10 minutes.
Core and peel apples and slice into rings. Cook in a shallow pan over medium-high heat, adding 3 tblspns of water and the caster sugar. Cook for approximately 10 minutes stirring occasionally until apples have browned and are soft. When apples are about 3 minutes away from being ready sprinkle with a pinch of demura sugar.
Serve with steamed broccolini.
:: Pumpkin Soup
Who doesn't love soup? Our daughter, that's who. It's heartbreaking because everyone else in the family could live on the stuff. She will tolerate this one with a crusty roll with lashings of butter. This makes enough to have leftovers for a mummy lunch or two throughout the week.
Ingredients:
2 tblspns olive oil
1 leek
I clove garlic
1/2 tspn ground cumin
1/2 tspn freshly grated or ground nutmeg
1 kg butternut pumpkin
2 potatoes
1L vegetable stock
1/2 cup cream
Make it:
Heat oil over low heat in a large pot and add thinly sliced leek. Cook, stirring occasionally until soft (about 5 minutes). Meanwhile peel and chop your pumpkin and potato. Stir in crushed garlic, cumin and nutmeg and pour in stock. Turn heat to high, add pumpkin and potato and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Take off heat and stand for 10 minutes then blend with a stick blender or in a food processor. Return to pot, stir in cream and heat gently for about 5 minutes. Add cracked pepper, a drizzle more cream and a pinch more nutmeg and serve with crusty rolls.
:: Flathead with Sweet Potato Chips
I batter my flathead the way I saw Bill Granger do whiting on one of his cooking shows.
Ingredients:
1/2 kilo flathead
1 kg sweet potato
1 cup plain flour
1 tspn baking powder
Pinch turmeric
Make it:
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Peel sweet potato and cut into "chips" — about 1cm wide and 8cm long (but don't get too fussy, they will all taste the same). Toss your chips in some olive oil and a pinch of sea salt and then arrange on a baking tray in a single layer. Bake for around 40 minutes, turning once, or until golden.
When the chips are about 10-15 minutes away from ready sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl and season with a pinch of turmeric, sea salt and ground pepper. Make a well in the centre and whisk in about 1 cup or more of cold mineral water to make a smooth batter (I use tap water if I don't have mineral water).
Heat about 3cm of oil in a deep fry pan over medium-high heat. Dust fish pieces in flour and then dip in batter, wiping any excess on the edge of the bowl on the way out and lower carefully into hot oil. Turn fish after about 3 minutes and allow an extra 2 minutes on the flip side. Remove and drain on paper towel before serving with chips.
:: Chicken and Leek Pie
I am not a "meat pie" fan but pastry is in my mind a perfect place for chicken and leek to get together. I have yet to find my perfect Chicken Pie recipe so I'm trying the Women's Weekly version and will report back on its worthiness.
:: Spaghetti with Garlic and Herbs
The easiest throw-it-together comfort meal for mine is this (especially when my hubbie cooks it). You simply cook up a packet of spaghetti and dress it with a good quality olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, some sea salt, garlic salt, cracked pepper, whatever fresh herbs you have on hand and a sprinkle of grated parmesan. Wholemeal spaghetti has just the right texture to hold all of this together.
:: Pork Noodle Salad
The salad part is actually off the back of a packet of dried noodles! It's one of our son's favourite meals.
Ingredients:
Pork fillet (about 350g)
100g packet fried noodles
1/2 chinese cabbage
4 shallots
100g pinenuts
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 tblspn soy sauce
2 tspns sesame oil
1/2 cup olive oil
Make it:
Preheat oven to 200°C. Rub your pork fillet over with a bit of combined soy and plum sauce or hoisin sauce. Place on a baking tray and cook for approximately 15 minutes or until just cooked through. Wrap in foil and set aside when done.
Meanwhile combine vinegar, castor sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and olive oil in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool. To make salad chop cabbage finely so that it is shredded and put in a large serving bowl. Chop shallots thinly and toss with cabbage. Now shred your pork by holding still with one fork and scraping with the prongs of another and add to salad. Pour dressing over and mix well. Just before serving mix through fried noodles and pine nuts.

Autumn recipe list

It's hard to believe we'll be doing this again very soon!

Phew! I’m done collating my recipes for the new season — 28 all up. I figured a few spare nights a month should be left for eating out, eating at friends’ places or a leftover night. I’ve tried to stay in season with produce (I’m still learning in this area). As we’ve recently moved here I’m sure next year will be more successful as I get to know what’s best around here during Autumn. I’ve also tried to mix it up as much as I can while respecting the palates of family members. It feels great to know that a whole season is sorted (although I will allow for some recipes to be omitted if the family is really persistent — even though I have banned the word “yuck” at the dinner table my kids still let me know in no uncertain terms it if they don’t like something). My main sources were:









I give you THE LIST:
Pizzas (Hawaiian Small Fry & Margarita Mama & Papa)
Vegetable Soup
Pork Cutlets with Apple Sauce
Spicy Chicken Meatballs
Lamb Cutlets with Beetroot Salad
Lemon Chicken
Spaghetti with Garlic Oil & Herbs
Bow Tie Creamy Pasta
Battered Flathead with Sweet Potato Fries
Vongoli Linguine
Aleppo Chicken
Pumpkin Soup
Gruyere, Leek & Bacon Tart
Pork Noodle Salad
Minestrone
Tuna Patties with Green Bean & Lentil Salad
Sang Choy Bow
Chicken & Leek Pie
Peas with Crunchy Bacon
Pork Dumplings
Chicken Nuggets and Wedges
Gnocchi with Mushrooms
Pan Fried Veal
Chicken & Basil Stir-Fry
Steamed Salmon on Potato & Leek
Pork Sausages with Le Courge au Gratin
Roast Chicken
Brown Rice Pilaf

I’ll make weekly menus from the list and shop the meat and non-perishables monthly. Fresh produce will be a weekly shop. If we invite guests over I’ll go with whatever is scheduled and just get extra for the recipe in the weekly shop. I like to put my list on the fridge each week so that I can see what I need to get out of the freezer each morning.

Week One :: Autumn cooking
I’ll list my weekly menu each Monday and some of the recipes. I think it’s a bit cheeky for me to list all the recipes out of cookbooks so I’ll just be listing my “own” recipes (that is, ones I have adapted, received from friends or made up) and anything from magazines. I may list the odd one from a cookbook, I figure that's just promotion for their book, right? All my recipes serve two adults and two kids. Here’s this week’s menu list:

Monday :: Pork Sausages with Le Courge au Gratin
I am not really a sausage fan but my kids love them. A new stall at our market carries free range pork sausages so we’re giving them a try. The Le Courge au Gratin recipe is a pumpkin mash of sorts with nutmeg and egg from Elizabeth David, Country Cooking.
Tuesday :: Gruyere, Leek & Bacon Tart
This recipe is from Women’s Weekly: The Complete Book of Modern Entertaining that my daughter gave to me (via Daddy) for my birthday. I haven’t done savoury tarts before so fingers crossed I can pull it off.
Wednesday :: Sang Choy Bow
Also from The Women’s Weekly Cookbook. I do love the Weekly cookbooks, all their recipes are tested A LOT (I know people who used to work for them) and I have yet to make one that doesn’t work. We’ve got lots of lettuce in our vegie patch at the moment so this one is an attempt to use some of it up in a way other than salad.
Thursday :: Steamed Salmon on Potato & Leek
Ingredients:
3 salmon fillets (about 200g each)
3 potatoes
1 leek
1 lemon
chives or dill
Make it:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Slice potatoes (about ½ a cm thick) and leek. Put 2 tablespoons butter and 1 of olive oil in a shallow baking tray and pop in the oven for a couple of minutes to melt the butter. Arrange potatoes on baking tray in a single layer and sprinkle with a little sea salt, cracked pepper and drizzle of olive oil. Bake in oven for approx15 minutes, then turn and bake for another 10 minutes. Meanwhile place your salmon fillets in a bamboo steamer with lid on and steam for approx 15 minutes over a saucepan of simmering water. Once salmon is on heat 1 tablespoon on butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over medium/low heat. Put sliced leek in pan, sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper and allow to sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. You might like to add a little more butter as it is cooking. When everything is ready arrange a layer of potatoes topped with leeks on plates then pop your salmon fillets on top and squeeze some lemon over them and sprinkle with a little cracked pepper and chopped dill or chives.
Friday :: Pizza Night
For the dough (we use a recipe from an issue of Delicious a few years back, it makes enough for two large pizzas):
2 cups strong flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
200ml warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
7g sachet dry yeast
Sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Add yeast, sugar and salt. Make a well and add combined oil and water. Mix thoroughly and then turn sticky mixture out onto a floured surface and kneed for five minutes. Put ball of dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel. Sit in a warm spot to rise for one hour. Dough should double in size. When ready, punch dough down with your fist and then split into two even balls. Place balls one at a time on a floured surface and sprinkle the top with flour and roll out for pizza base. Place bases on lightly floured pizza trays.
For the toppings:
Small (no more than 100g) jar of tomato passata or tomato paste
4 bocconcini balls
150g ham or bacon, chopped
12 pieces fresh or tinned pineapple
1 cup grated parmesan
2 egg tomatoes
12 basil leaves
8 anchovies
Spread each base with passata to approx. two centimetres from the edge.
Hawaiian Small Fry Pizza :: Slice two bocconcinis thinly and spread evenly on sauced base. Scatter with chopped ham or bacon and pineapple pieces. Sprinkle with half a cup of parmesan. Cook at 180°C for approx 12 minutes or until base is crisp and golden and toppings are cooked.
Margarita Mama & Papa Pizza :: Slice two bocconcini thinly and spread over sauced base. Slice egg tomatoes and scatter evenly on pizza. Place basil leaves on top. Finish with anchovies and half a cup of grated cheese. Cook at 180°C for approx 15 minutes.
Saturday :: Chicken Nuggets & Wedges
Ingredients:
500g chicken breast fillet
6 large potatoes
Make it:
Cut chicken fillet into strips (approx 5x2cm) and set aside. For crumbing you will need 3 bowls: 1 containing 1 cup of flour, 1 containing 2 eggs lightly whisked, 1 containing 2 cups bread crumbs. I don’t make my own bread crumbs, I buy them from a baker who makes organic breads and then add a bit of sea salt, ½ cup of finely grated parmesan and 2 tblspns of very finely chopped parsley. Now crumb each piece of chicken — lightly coat with flour, dip in egg and then roll in crumbs until thickly covered. Once it’s all crumbed cover and pop in the fridge.
Preheat your oven to 210°C. Scrub and chop potatoes into wedge like chunks. Put wedges into a saucepan of cold salted water and bring to the boil. Let them boil only a few minutes then drain and tip onto a tea towel and pat dry. Sprinkle with sea salt. In a deep baking tray heat 1 cup olive oil. Place potatoes into heated oil with tongs and return to oven for about 1 hour, turning once. Keep an eye on them, if they are browning up more quickly reduce cooking time. When done place on paper towel for a few minutes before plating up.
When wedges are about 20 minutes off being ready heat 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and cook your nuggets for about 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. You might need to add a bit more butter to the pan as you go. Serve with dipping sauces of choice (we go for sour cream and tomato sauce).
Sunday :: Lamb Cutlets with Beetroot Salad
Ingredients:
10 lamb cutlets
1 cup red wine
2 tblspns balsamic vinegar
1 crushed garlic clove
8 chopped mint leaves
To make:
Combine red wine, crushed garlic, chopped mint leaves, sea salt and some cracked pepper in a large bowl. Place lamb cutlets in marinade, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge. Try and get this done at least 2 hours before you intend to cook.
Make the beetroot salad according to this recipe of mine (just multiply the ingredients by the amount of people you are feeding).
To cook the cutlets remove them from the marinade and place in a fry pan over medium heat. Cook for approx 10 minutes on one side, turn and give them 5 minutes on the other side. Serve with salad.

Edible love

Get your minds out of the gutter people, I am not about to direct to you to a kinky store.
Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Yes, it's a commercial cash-in for the likes of Hallmark and Lindt but it's also kind of nice to have a day that reminds us to show our love. Life does get in the way and the daily grind can make even the most loved-up of us a bit narky to our close ones sometimes.
We don't do lavish gifts like diamonds or champagne breakfast in a hot air balloon in our house because that would be succumbing to the Lurve-Day marketing gurus (oh yeah, and we can't afford it) but that doesn't mean we won't be feeling the love. And one of the best ways I can show two little people how much I love them (after I have held them down and kissed every little digit and nibbled on their ears and noses and squeezed and squished them silly) is to serve them CAKE!
This is the quickest and easiest chocolate cake recipe I have EVER made. It ALWAYS works and is nice and moist. It's one of those can't remember where I found the recipe favourites.
Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
90g butter (melted)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Make it:
Pre-heat oven to 180°C and grease your tin (a heart-shaped one if you have it). Sift flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and beat in mixer for five minutes. Pour and scrape into tin. Bake for 30 minutes and then turn onto wire rack to cool.
Icing:
125g butter, softened
1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons milk
Beat butter in small mixing bowl until pale. Sift cocoa and icing sugar together then gradually beat half into the butter. Add milk. Now beat in remaining icing sugar and cocoa. Spread with a knife over your cake.
For a bit of extra oomph I like to sprinkle with Haigh's Drinking Chocolate Flakes.

Not another sandwich...

Kids may need the carbs and never tire of a sandwich but I am over chewing the scraps of crusts left on the plates and calling it lunch. I am also aware that as the years tick by I can no longer rely on an afternoon chocolate hit to get me through the day. These days I could down a block of Cadbury's then slip straight into a comma, waking to find that somehow 125 grams of little brown milky squares have converted to approximately a kilogram of blubber on each of my thighs. My body needs the right fuels for this long drive on the parenting super-highway if I am going to make the distance.
I was at my local farmers' market over the weekend busily gathering the items on my grocery list when I saw some beautiful, just-picked in the wee of hours of that very morning, beetroots. They weren't on my list and I hadn't planned a recipe for them but I couldn't resist. I usually don't like to go outside my "list" as I don't get around to finding something to do with the produce and it ends up getting fed to the bin. So in a bid to stick to a promise I've been making to myself and the environment not to waste things I had to find something to do with the beetroot. I started playing a this goes with that game and ended up with this:
Can't Beet It Salad (okay a better name is probably in order — any suggestions?)
Ingredients:
1 beetroot
1 generous handful of fresh peas
1 small helping of feta (about 50g)
balsamic vinegar
a peppery olive oil
sea salt
5 mint leaves
How to:
Trim the beetroot of its leaves and steam for approximately 15 minutes or until tender. When done rinse under cold water and peel. Chop into 2 cm cubes and drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Release the fresh peas from their pods and scatter over beetroot. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt. Crumble feta over the top. Finely chop mint leaves and add. Drizzle with a nice peppery olive oil and toss gently. Now eat!

Beetroot is high in fibre and anti-oxidants and has no fat and very few calories. Oh, and it makes your wee pink!

Easy Pea-sy

One of the best things about summer is all the easy snack options (it's a fruit smorgasbord). This week we are enjoying a vegetable — the humble little pea. They are a great compact travel snack with their own biodegradable or edible packaging. Kids love opening the pod and counting how many juicy green balls are inside. And because they are in season they are cheap. We got a 1 kilo bag for $4 at our local farmers' market. They taste just lovely as is but if you want to take it to the next level you can drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle a little sea salt over a dish of shelled peas. We call them Love Peas (our kids say they melt in your mouth like love). And then there's the Jamie Oliver level. This is truly delicious.
Buttered peas with crunchy bacon from COOK with Jamie
4 big handfuls of fresh peas
5 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, finely sliced
olive oil
knob of butter
1 lemon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Place the peas into boiling water and cook for 3 minutes or until tender. Fry the bacon slices in a tiny bit of olive oil until golden and crisp, then remove them to a dish and keep the pan with all the juices left in. Drain your peas, reserving a little cup of cooking water, and add them to the pan with the bacon fat, but don't put the pan back on the heat as you don't want to fry them. Add a knob of butter, a tiny squeeze of lemon juice and little sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Add a little splash of cooking water to delicately coat and glaze the peas. Serve in a bowl with crispy bacon bits on top.

Christmas eve baking: reindeer cookies

We made these cookies last weekend for a Christmas-themed picnic with some extended family and we'll no doubt be baking another batch today with a few reserved for the jolly fat man himself... I remembered seeing a picture of some reindeer cookies somewhere but couldn't quite locate it so I decided to use my basic peanut butter oat cookie recipe and decorate with choc buttons (eyes), jaffas (nose) and pretzels (reindeer antlers). Here's the biscuit recipe (I have had this written down in a note book for years and I think it just came off the back off a sugar packet!)
Ingredients:
125 go butter
1/4 cup peanut butter (I like Sanitarium Natural Peanut Butter — 100% roasted peanuts)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup self raising flour
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line 2 trays with baking paper. Combine butter and peanut butter in saucepan and melt over medium heat while stirring. Transfer to large bowl and let cool a little. Add brown sugar and egg, mix with wooden spoon. Add combined sifted flours and oats and mix. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and flatten slightly on trays. Bake 10-12 minutes and transfer to cooling rack. Add decorations while still warm. Makes approx 16 cookies.

Weekend baking: Christmas cookies (but of course)

Cookies are one of those great foods that can be tweaked to suit any occassion. And what can be more perfect for the Christmas season than cookies that can be hung on the tree? These cookies come from Nigella Lawson's fantastic baking book, How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I use her Butter Cut-Out Biscuits recipe as (like she says) they really do hold their shape and taste good. Anything of the shortbread variety is just too crumbly I find.
175g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
400g plain flour (organic really does a make a difference)
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn salt
Cream the butter and sugar in your mix-master until pale and mousy then beat in eggs and vanilla. In another bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt, add to mix-master and mix gently. The mixture should be a sticky dough that can be handled. Form into two fat discs, wrap in clingwrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. One of the batches can be frozen for later use (when the tree needs refilling).
Place one of the discs on a floured surface, sprinkle the top with a good bit of flour and roll out to about 1/2 cm thick. Use assorted Christmas themed cookie cutters to cut out shapes. We got 30 shapes out of our batch. Make a hole in the top centre of each shape with a chopstick or skewer and place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof.


Bake for 8-10 mins or until lightly golden around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack and once cool ice however you like (if your hole has closed up during cooking redo it while the cookies are still warm). This year we went for plain white icing (150g icing sugar and a couple of teaspoons of near boiling water mixed to form a smooth paste) and little silver balls for a bit of Christmas bling. To string cookies you can use any type of ribbon. To go with the traditional Christmas decoration look we used silver Japan thread (from Spotlight). Let the kids decorate the tree and voila a Christmas decoration and snack in one.